There is no shortage of favorable adjectives that critics have employed in describing “I Am Love” since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September.
Luca Guadagnino’s lush melodrama (see, we sneaked one in) about a wealthy Italian family at a potent turning point played the Boulder International Film Festival in February and opens in Denver today at the Esquire theater.
The enthusiasm inspired by “I Am Love” has much to do with how beautiful an object co-writer-director Guadagnino has delivered. Italian film is on an upswing, and the cinema-embracing ambitions of this melodrama provide evidence of a resurgence.
“I Am Love” is set in Milan, where the esteemed Recchi family owns a textile factory. It opens on household preparations for a celebration of the patriarch’s birthday. Emma Recchi (Tilda Swinton) oversees the taut logistics of the evening. And the filmmaker makes it clear that in this grand home, setting a table is akin to setting the stage for what’s to come.
Edoardo Recchi Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) upsets things by passing the family business to his loyal son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) but also his charming and sensitive grandson Edo (Flavio Parenti). “It will take two men to replace me,” he says. Wife Allegra (Marisa Berenson) and family look on with a tinge of apprehension.
The anxiety may be misplaced. A greater disruption arrives ever so gently in the person of chef Antonio Biscaglia (Edoardo Gabbriellini). Earlier in the day, he beat Edo in a rowing match, which didn’t stop the scion from wanting to finance his new friend’s restaurant.
Oscar winner Swinton (“Michael Clayton”) portrays Tancredi’s Russian-born wife. Emma has given herself over to her husband’s country. The one exception to her surrender is making Uhka, a clear broth fish soup that son Edo loves.
What begins as a family saga, slips quietly into a story about Emma’s liberation. When she learns daughter Betta (Alba Rohr wacher) has fallen in love, the notion of following one’s desires rattles her. When she tastes a meal prepared by Antonio, it’s ecstasy. The table is set for romantic upheaval.
Cinematographer Yorick Le Saux’s elegant images of buildings — stony exteriors, lux interiors — and weather-worn statuary suggest centuries-old tradition but also invite a meditative or appreciative silence.
Guadagnino stirs in details about food. Antonio embodies tensions familiarly Italian: He is a humble craftsman and a driven artist. He raises fruits and vegetables on the land he hopes to build a restaurant on with the help of Edo. At his Milan restaurant, he designs and constructs exquisite dishes.
And here is when the parade of adjectives begins its march: sumptuous, sensuous, opulent, lavish.
Much of the music comes by way of John Adams. The Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer did not write new music for this tale of constraint and liberty. He did, however, weigh in on its use, which adds heightened, vertigo-inducing dimension.
While “I Am Love” also offers brief glimpses into the seductions of globalization, it is the interpersonal that wins out.
Some may find Emma’s swoon dive a bit much, a dish of Nora Roberts garnished with Italian parsley. But Swinton is a risk-taking performer.
Yes, Emma does become undone. But what verve, what operatic nerve.
R for sexuality and nudity. 2 hours. Directed by Luca Guadagnino; written by Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, Walter Fasano and Guadagnino; photography by Yorick Le Saux; starring Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Maria Paiato, and Marisa Berenson. Opens today at the Esquire theater.
